louisa
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Karma: 1 |  | Heron 1 by Denise Levertov
« Thread Started on Nov 9, 2008, 4:57am » | |
Heron 1
by Denise Levertov
submitted by Ann Neuser Lederer
Denise Levertov's "Heron 1" is one of my favorite poems because of its combination of music, image, metaphor, allegory, and shape. It is a gem of compact delight which I never tire of admiring. Its turning and interweaving mirror the careful and graceful actions of the bird itself. The poem's gentle craftsmanship enhances the total effect, resulting in a poem that stands as an object as clearly and distinctly as the creature it describes. But it is more than mere technique and description, as the poet's metaphysical sensitivities provide subtle hints for a well-lived life. The naming of Heron as Saint at the onset becomes clarified at the end of the poem. Two more things: A wonderfully instructive and fulfilling exercise is to copy out this poem in long hand, monastic fashion. The carved words, like a fasting ascetic atop a stone column in the desert, transcend narrative and become another kind of art, almost graphic, like a drawing. And lastly, another reason I love Levertov, as exemplified in this perfect poem, is that her training and practice as a nurse combine some of the finest features of our profession: honed perception, holistic awareness of the echoes of all being, awe of nature, respect for practical action, and finely tuned compassion.
Read Heron 1
http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=49078108
More about the poet and her poems
http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/41
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poet.html?id=4048
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katebb
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Karma: 2 | | Re: Heron 1
« Reply #1 on Nov 11, 2008, 7:30pm » | |
Wow, gorgeous poem. She's alluding to St. Simon Stylites, an ascetic who spent the better part of his life on top of a pillar where he engaged in almost constant prayer. People came to gawk but he remained aloof in otherness and solitude ... Like the heron, one assumes.
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